Eternal Promises

What comes to mind when you hear the words, “the end?” Most people think of the end of their lives. How will it end? When will it end? Questions like these can consume the mind, especially the mind with no eternal hope. How much time do you spend planning for the future, attempting to precisely predict when life events will occur? Most likely, it’s quite a bit. Perhaps nothing is more stressful than worrying about matters concerning the future, such as aging parents, retirement, household finances, job stability, a medical diagnosis, or when to have children. 

Daniel also pondered his future and for the benefit of all humanity, the Lord sent him a vision of what his future would look like.  Daniel asked the Lord for the wisdom to understand how the future would unfold, yet the Lord chose not to tell him everything, only what Daniel needed to know, which was more than sufficient. The Lord’s response is the same to us living today, but unlike Daniel we have the New Testament and the resurrection of the “man clothed in linen” (Daniel 12:7), Jesus Christ. 

After receiving the news about the great tribulation and the important numbers that pertain to it, Daniel is told “…go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and you will rise to your inheritance at the end of the days” (Daniel 12:13).

Daniel is given one command and two promises in this verse. In fact, these very words could be spoken to the modern day follower of Christ. Since 535 B.C. (when Daniel received this vision) to present day, God has remained unchanged and unmoved by the darkness that continues to permeate. Nevertheless, the command given to Daniel to “go on his way till the end” (emphasis mine, Daniel 12:13) is almost identical to the words Jesus spoke of those who will come to follow Him during the Great Tribulation, “but he who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13). Translation, believers are to endure through every kind of persecution, trial, and spiritual attack until the end of their lives and they should expect more to come as they surrender more of their lives to His will. 

Next, Daniel is given two supernatural promises. First is the promise of “rest.” The Hebrew context used here for rest is a euphemism for death. Meaning, Daniel most likely didn’t understand “that to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). Nonetheless, this is how followers of Christ now understand death; rest in heaven from the stress of this world. Second, is the promise of being resurrected; this was even harder for Daniel to understand because during his life, being resurrected from the dead was an unknown doctrine and not fully understood. In summary, Daniel knew his future included eternal rest and bodily resurrection.

These promises from God are everlasting and unchanging, and like He told Daniel, the Lord is commanding His children to faithfully and obediently endure to the end until He brings them home for eternal rest.